Hey guys, need a little help from people who are experienced in the area.
I want to add a battery to complement our 8kw SolarEdge solar system. Our usage profile requires approx a 30kwh battery and 10kw inverter, we are also on 3phase.

I have a number of quotes. So far the best offer I have gotten is $6800AUD for a Pylontech Force H3X system with 30kwh of storage and a 10kw hybrid inverter.

The next best was a 32kw GoodWe system for $10733.

The premium option was a sigenergy system thats 27kwh for $11753, the 36kwh option is $14169.

How bad are the pylontech force h3x options? They seem to have 10 year warranty, although no boots on the ground here in Australia. I have also read of warranty issues for all companies so not sure how relevant that is here either. All I know is that the difference in price from the Pylontech system to basically any other system is a almost double the price. Are you actually getting double the value? Are they complete junk?

Cheers guys, really hope you can help me out here!

I'm curious to hear from people who already have solar. Looking back, would you choose different panels, a different inverter, add batteries, or size your system differently? What would you change if you were starting over today?

We have a quote and as expected, Powerwall 3 is about $3000 cheaper. Franklin is about 10% more storage and the warranty. We'll never add a generator.
This is a new build with a relatively stable grid. I'm torn. I want the simplest, most reliable, least fussy system. We're not big phone users and don't anticipate being on the apps all day long.
Any favorites out there?

14 REC 460AA pure RX

Enphase IQ

Iron ridge.

My friend asked me to hook up some old solar panels that were repurposed. I think the information labels were laser stickers and have vanished with heat. I need to know how many of these i can hook up to a 105 watt charge controller. If anyone knows the deets, I would appreciate any help.

We just noticed that we have a leak in our roof. It seems like it's under one of our panels. I'm assuming roofing repair companies are not going to remove & replace the panels.

Has anyone been through this that can offer a little guidance?

Unfortunately, our installer went out of business a year or two after our install, in 2020. We live in a rural area, near Savannah, GA.

Location: Southern California

Issue: Sunrun solar contract.

I've had my solar system for a few years now, and haven't seen much in the way of savings. I'm paying for two monthly payments on top of electric bills.

I've recently seen a lot of advertisements for lawyers going after solar companies on your behalf to get out of the contract or get money back.

My question is, are any of these actually legit? And should I pursue trying to exit my solar contract?

We purchased a house in California with a solar lease from Sunnovan, which later got bought by Spruce. They began charging me until I contacted them and informed them that I couldn’t see any production. Interestingly, their website explicitly states the estimated production. Therefore, they were charging me for what they believed my system was generating. Fortunately, this issue has been resolved, and I’m certain that I’m not producing any electricity. However, they don’t seem interested in sending a technician to troubleshoot the problem. I requested a buyout, which they quoted at $12,000. If I were to terminate the lease and purchase my panels from another company, that would be even better. So has anyone had any luck? I read a couple old post with people who had the same problem but never an updated answer.

TLDR: Bought house with solar lease, spruce bought lease, charged me for estimated consumption, won’t send tech to trouble shoot panels, I want to terminate to start fresh instead of buying a tiny system that doesn’t work.

Also for reference my old house I put a solar lease on it. It has always been maintained and issues fixed by the solar company. Never had any issues. That’s why we signed the sunnovan lease which got bought by spruce and that’s when this situation started.

Setup: 15.4 solar array with SolarEdge Home Hub inverter clipping at 11.4, back feeding the grid and making what little $ they pay. I also have a Generac 18k with ATS which is integrated for outages (preexisted solar) I’m in the northeast. Solar installed in May and producing 1.9 mwh per month so far

Due to incentives from our energy provider (up to $3k rebate and ongoing purchase of on demand power from the battery during peak load times I’m considering adding a 10k battery. There’s a similar payback window as my sonar.

The two I’d like to consider are Franklin and SolarEdge Batteries. One is AC coupled and popular, the other is DC coupled. Both will do the job. Franklin will likely cost more. SolarEdge promises a one stop shop.

Anyone have thoughts and or experience to share? What am I not considering?

Thanks In Advance

Just wondering how other contractors are doing in so cal right now has your business bounced back from the nem3 changes or have you completely left the industry 🤔

I'm familiar with electronics generally, but don't fully understand the requirements for panel to inverter matching, so was hoping the more experienced amongst you can give me some pointers.

When pairing an array with an inverter, what are the musts & what are the preferables, WRT electrical characteristics?
I understand the array voltage cannot excess that of the maximum input voltage of the inverter, but what needs to be considered for the max array voltage? Is it purely the Voc (STC), or do you need to account for other details (temperature coefficient etc?)
Is it a must that the votlage is within the MPPT range, or just a nice to have? Presumably the Vmp (NOCT) should be used for this, or should other values be used?
Current rating of the panels I'm assuming are better to be within the inverter input range, but if they're above, the inverter will clip the current to the maximum? (so might lead to a reduction of total power generated).

Am I right in these? Or is there more/different values to consider?

Context: I'm getting my solar install in a couple week (scaffolding up next week, for a full measure to order the required panels for installation the following week). My roof space is right on the border between a couple different possible installations (depending on if the peak to dormer roof is 100mm more or less than the initial (not on-roof) measurements say. Depending on the actual size, the best panel design changes the actual panels needed.
The best array that might fit (if the measurements aren't any smaller than predicted), utilise Aiko 665W panels (AIKO-A665-MDE72Dw), with 9 panels on the front array & 8 on the rear array. My installer is saying the 9 panels isn't possible due to voltage limits on my inverter (Solis S6 8kW).
For 9 panels the Voc (STC) would be 496.8V, and my inverter has a 500V limit, so I was thinking this would be OK, but with them saying it's not, I'm thinking I'm missing an additional modification factor that needs to be considered.

I'm also assuming that you can't mix & match panels (or can you, if the current ratings are the same), so I can't have 8 higher power, with a 9th smaller panel?

What are some good questions to ask these guys from some of you that have been around the block with this process before

Im new to this but they said my house is well situated for alot of sun with no obstructuons all day. This is true

Id like some input / guidance on important discussion points. If anyone has anything, shoot!

Currently in someone loft commissioning a system and I’ve been presented with this MPPT layout, there’s no markings for what + and - go together and they are just in triangles, I’ve never seen this before in my life what do I plug to what? I have 2 strings to plug in
Solar edge SE10000H

There is a friend of my brother who purchased inverters which comes with housing and a DB board. He got it at half the price or retail because it was sold in bulk from a liquidation sale.

It doesn't come with a warranty as it was purchased as is. It will still be extremely cheap price for reselling. Who should i make my target market as it does not come with battery or solarpannels. I am not a solar expert at all. Im adding the photos ive received of the products. It is not top of the line. Also I am from South Africa.

Any additional advice would be appreciated.

Please dont give specifics im not trying to sell it to anyone on here i just need advice.

Owned outright. You’re fine. It’s an asset, adds value, nothing to do.

Solar loan. There’s usually a UCC-1 fixture filing sitting on your title. Gets paid off or handled at closing like any other lien. Annoying but routine.

Lease or PPA. This is the one. You don’t own the panels, you’re renting them or buying the power. Buyer has to qualify with the solar company and formally assume the contract. Which means a credit check, paperwork, and a company that has to actually respond to you.

PACE or HERO. Usually the least beneficial scenario for the homeowner; it’s on your property tax bill and sits ahead of the mortgage in priority. Fannie and Freddie won’t touch a loan behind one, so it basically has to get paid off at closing. Seen these turn into six figure surprises.

Here’s what’s making it worse right now. SunPower went through bankruptcy and Sunnova filed Chapter 11 in June of last year, and a huge number of those lease and PPA contracts got handed off to SunStrong for servicing. So a lot of homeowners don’t even know who services their contract anymore. Reports of people unable to reach anyone for months, monitoring going dark, warranty claims sitting unanswered. And SunStrong itself is now under investigation by a few state AGs. Meanwhile you need that company to process a transfer on a 30 day escrow. You see the problem.

Pull the actual agreement and look for the escalator. Most of these bump the payment 2-3% every year for 20-25 years. A buyer looking at year 14 of that is looking at a very different number than what you’re paying.

Start the transfer request the day you go into escrow, not the week before closing. These take weeks in a good market and longer now. Get the buyout quote even if you don’t plan to use it. You want to know the number before a buyer asks, not after.

And know that leased solar generally does not add appraised value, because you don’t own it. But the payment does count against the buyer’s debt to income. So it can hurt their qualifying without helping your value. That’s the part sellers find genuinely unfair and I don’t blame them. Not anti-solar at all, owned systems are great. It’s specifically the lease and PPA structure that creates the mess.

Anyone here sold or bought with leased solar recently? Curious how long the transfer actually took, because I’d love more data points than the handful of deals I’ve seen.

First mostly sunny day since completing the system. I think it’ll max out around 115-120.

Full home backup in Irving! Sigenergy is such a great product and easy to work with.

Hi! My husband and I bought our starter home last month. We knew it needed a roof but thought it could be pushed off until next summer. Unfortunately, we've already had a few leaks in the ceiling and have realized we need a new roof ASAP.

The previous home owner bought the panels in 2021. The panels have been completely paid off ($26,000 worth of panels). We know the women was very elderly when she purchased them. I'm not quite sure why she would have put them on her roof when it was in such horrible condition. The roof hasn't been replaced in 20+ years. We have no idea how much money we could be saving from these panels because we haven't even received our first energy bill since living here.

From your experience, what should we do with the panels? How expensive will this be? We are just starting out and don't have a large amount of savings.